Palestinians

(JTA) – Former White House correspondent Helen Thomas said the Jews did not have to leave postwar Europe because they weren’t persecuted.

In an interview Wednesday on CNN’s “Joy Behar” program, Thomas told Behar that once World War II ended, the Jews “didn’t have to go anywhere really, because they weren’t being persecuted anymore. But they were taking other people’s land.”

It used to be that a primary goal of Israel's friends in this country was to ensure strong U.S.-Israel relations and to create a genuinely bipartisan wall of support for the Jewish state in U.S. politics.

Now, the goal seems more to take advantage of today's bitter partisanship to advance a specific vision of U.S.-Israeli relations or support a particular political viewpoint in Israel. Or to use Israel as just another wedge issue in the U.S. partisan wars.

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- A television campaign airing in Arab countries to address women's issues, produced in cooperation with a United Nations agency, glorifies a female Palestinian terrorist.

The United Nations Population Fund, an international development agency that promotes a life of health and equal opportunity for all, on Thursday disassociated itself from the campaign, The Jerusalem Post reported.

Abubakar Dungus, a spokesperson for the Population Fund, told the Post that it was not consulted or involved in choosing the featured women.

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The New York Times apologized for allowing a writer who has attended pro-Palestinian rallies to co-author a story claiming that Jewish criticism of Israel has grown in the San Francisco region.

The Feb. 3 article, headlined "A Jewish Group Makes Waves, Locally and Abroad," covered tensions among Jews in the area. It focused particularly on Jewish Voice for Peace, which is noncommittal on whether Israel should become a binational state.

NEW YORK (JTA) -- A leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said any post-Mubarak government should dissolve its peace treaty with Israel.

"After President Mubarak steps down and a provisional government is formed, there is a need to dissolve the peace treaty with Israel," Rashad al-Bayoumi, a deputy leader of the movement, told a Japanese television station, according to a report in The Washington Times.

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The PLO office in Washington raised a flag for the first time.

"It's about time that this flag that symbolizes the struggle of the Palestinian people for self-determination and statehood is raised in the United States," said Palestine Liberation Organization envoy Maen Areikat in a brief ceremony Tuesday outside its Dupont Circle offices. "We hope that this will help in the international efforts to provide recognition for the Palestinian state."

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- More Palestinian Arabs living in eastern Jerusalem would prefer to retain their Israeli citizenship after a two-state solution is reached than live in Palestine, a new study found.

Some 35 percent of Palestinian Arabs questioned chose Israeli citizenship, 30 percent chose Palestinian citizenship and 35 percent declined to answer when asked their preferences for citizenship after a two-state solution is reached, according to a newly released survey conducted by Pechter Middle East Polls in partnership with the Council on Foreign Relations.

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- There is no evidence that a Palestinian woman reportedly killed at a West Bank security fence protest died from tear gas poisoning, Israel's military said.

Jawaher Abu Rahma, 36, died on the morning of Jan. 1, hours after she was said to have inhaled tear gas at a demonstration near the West Bank village of Bilin. She reportedly died of complications from inhaling the tear gas.